Abstract
What I have called the major Reformation of the 16th century is represented in the Netherlands most clearly by Cassander, Coornhert and Lipsius. They follow one another chronologically in this order and they show in that order an increasing subjection to the influence of the Classics and a reduced need of supernatural salvation in the christian sense. The first of these men is a Christian carrying out humanistic studies, while the third is a humanistic philosopher who is a faithful Christian as well.
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References
For the ideas of the Prince of Orange cf. the article of the present author: “De religieuze ontwikkeling bij de Prins van Oranje”: Nieuw Theologisch Tijdschrift, 1933: 101-148, and of the nobility of his circle cf. the same, Erasmus, schilders en rederijkers (1959): 90 ff.
Nam de fide in Christum mortuum et resuscitatum pro nobis collocanda et charitate Deo et proximo exhibenda, controversia nulla est. Porro in his duobus capitibus pietatis summa consistit. Quid enim est aliud pietas quam officium praestare Deo? Quod officium quid aliud est quam eius obtemperare mandatis? [….] Hoc est mandatum eius, ut credamus in nomine Filii eius Jesu Christi et dili-gamus alterutrum.… Qui enim diligit proximum, legem implevit. — Georgius Cassandri Opera omnia (1616): fo. 794.
Opera omnia: fo. 894 (Praefatio to Cassander’s Consultatio ad imperatorem Ferdinandum …); fo. 917, 620; — Maria E. Nolte, Georgius Cassander en zijn oecu-menisch streven (1951): 165-168.
Loc. cit.: 50 ff.; Quare qui recta sententia de Christo capite iunguntur et chari-tatis et pacis vinculo, etiam si opinionibus quibusdam et ritibus discrepant, reliquo Ecclesiae corpori connectuntur: nullo modo ut schismatici et ab Ecclesia alieni habendi sunt, etiam [he means Lutherans and Calvinists] si ab alia Ecclesiae parte potentiore et gubernationem obtinente reiecti et ab eorum societate et communione, separati videantur (Opera omnia: fo. 788).
Nolte, op. cit.: 168.
Loc. cit.: 91, 178, 62.
Loc cit.: 57.
Nolte, op. cit.: chap. II.
Dilthey, Weltanschauung und Analyse: 109.
In Coornhert’s days they all shared the ideas of the early Baptist “teacher” Menno Simonsz and were called Mennists.
Zedekunst dat is Wellevenskunst, vermids waarheyds kennisse van den mensche, van de zonden ende van de dueghden, nu allereerst beschreven int nederlandsch, ed. by Bruno Becker, 1942 (quoted: Wellevenskunst).
A. Zijderveld, “Verwaarloosde ‘Renaissance’ litteratuur”: Keur uit de werken van A. Zijderveld (1953): 52 f.
J. D. Meerwaldt, Vormaspecten (1958): 12.
Wellevenskunst: 4de Boek, III.
Dilthey, op. cit.: 107.
Bronnen tot de hennis van het leven en de werken van D V. Coornhert, uitgegeven door Bruno Becker (1928), letter no. 38: “van de hanteringe der sacramenten; ver-vallen ende wederoprechten derzelven.
Coornhert, De blinde voor Jericho (one of his comedies); — Dilthey, op. cit.: 97.
Bruno Becker, “Coornhert, de 16e eeuwsche apostel der volmaakbaarheid”: Ned. Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis, N.S. XIX (1926): 75.
H. Bonger, De motivering van de godsdienstvrijheid bij Dirck Volckertszoon Coornhert (1954): 52.
Loc. cit.: 45, 48; — Wellevenskunst, iste Boek: XII, XIV.
In order to be able to speak responsibly about this, he learnt Latin: this opened up for him the writings of the Church Fathers (Bonger, op. cit.: 48); during his lifetime he wrote numerous tracts discussing these dogmas in opposition to the theologians of tbe Dutch Reformed Church.
See note 6 p. 313.
Cf. inter alia letter no. 4 in: Bronnen; — Becker, “Coornhert de apostel”: 67; — Bonger, op. cit.: 42.
He devotes a whole chapter in his Wellevenskunst to “reason” which differentiates man from the animals, which directs the will to that which is good, while “misuse of reason” causes man to pursue evil.
Bronnen, letter no. 33.
Coornhert could also speak of a “slavish will,” he would however mean by it that man lets his own will die in order to let God’s will live in him (Bronnen, letter no. 12).
Bonger, op. cit.: 57.
P. van der Meulen, De Comedies van Coornhert (1945): 64.
See for instance the ideas of a well-known and influential magistrate, father of the famous poet Pieter C. Hooft, in my De levensbeschouwing van Cornelis Pieterszoon Hooft, burgemeester van Amsterdam, 1547-1626 (1918).
For the latter two I follow the comprehensive treatment by Jason L. Saunders, Justus Lipsius, the Philosophy of Renaissance Stoicism, 1955.
Loc. cit.: 197, 200, 128.
Loc. cit.: 162.
Loc. cit.: 132.
Loc. cit.: 131, 123.
The formulation is of Saunders, the quotation from: Lipsius, Physiologica, I: 5; loc. cit.: 125.
Saunders, op. cit.: 137.
The translation is of Saunders, loc. cit.: 164.
Joost van den Vondel is the poet laureate of 17th century Holland; he was a Mennist, but was converted to Catholicism; his work was highly valued both by the protestant and catholic Dutchmen; Rudolf Otto published a translation of Vondel’s hymn in the appendix of Das Heilige.
Translation of Saunders, op. cit.: 138.
Tini M. van de But, Lipsius’ De Constantia en Seneca (1946): 59 ff, 75 ff.
Saunders, op. cit.: 141-143, 158, 157 (words between inverted commas are of Saunders not of Lipsius).
Dilthey, Weltanschauung und Analyse: 445.
Saunders, op. cit.: 156, 152, 155, XV, 211.
Quotation in: Dilthey, op. cit.: 445.
Although he does his best to show that the oldest christian thinkers were close to the Stoa in this respect and vice versa the (Roman) Stoa close to Christianity.
Saunders, op. cit.: 147 ff., 69, 91, 92, 99, 118, 96, 100-101.
Loc. cit.: 71, 72.
Quotation from Lipsius, Manudictio, II: io in: Saunders, op. cit.: 86, cf. also: 85.
Van de Bilt, op. cit.: chap. Ill, IV; — Saunders, op. cit.: passim.
omnis religio et nulla religio sunt mihi unum et idem. Et apud me lutherana et calvinistanim doctrina pari passu ambulant. (Saunders, op. cit.: 19 II.).
The papal pestilence which has to be eradicated (Saunders, op. cit: 12).
Alph. Roersch, Juste Lipse (1925): 11.
When Lipsius returned to Brabant, Scaliger said: “this resulted from the superstition of that troublesome woman, his wife, who disturbed his sick soul through ambition” (quoted in Saunders, op. cit.: 37 note, cf. Van der Bilt, op. cit.: 12).
Saunders, op. cit.: 52.
I do not forget Juan and Alonso Valdés, who are foremost in undergoing Erasmus’ influence, but the first emigrated early to Italy and the latter excelled in reproducing and propagating the ideas of the great humanist, without adding much to them. (Bataillon, Erasme en Espagne: chap. VII, VIII).
Bataillon dedicates a paragraph to Cervantes in his last chapter, XIV: “Derniers reflets d’Erasme”; it concerns more the author than his religious ideas.
The present author has treated this subject more elaborately in his recent book: Erasmus, schilders en rederijkers (1959).
Cf. the picture in the National Museum, Vienna, reproduced: Max J. Fried-lander, Pieter Bruegel (1927), no. 47.
The drawings are reproduced, with an introduction and analysis in: J. G. van Gelder en Jan Borms, Brueghel’s zeven deugden en zeven hoofdzonden (1939).
Fides maxime a nobis conservanda est praecipue in religionem, quia deus prior et potentior est quam homo.
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© 1961 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
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van Gelder, H.A.E. (1961). In the Netherlands. In: The Two Reformations in the 16th Century. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-9564-5_10
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